Welcome to Round 2! See an explanation for how the Guiding Thoughts change for this round here.

Guiding Thought

Remember your Self and recognize the Love within you, the Love you are. See this Love as all you are and all there is, the reality of you, the reality of me, and the reality that is the Life of All. Honor this Love and this Life, and offer gratitude for Its Being. What Joy there is in Being!

Sharing

A lot of times, I think, “I don’t know what Love even is…” I know I am kind, helpful, generous, and caring, but I don’t know that I am loving. That’s really hard to admit. Part of not knowing if I am loving, I think is because I expect love to be something specific, something overwhelming, powerful, and undeniable. This not knowing pushes me to want to know. I want to know the deep abiding love that makes all things right, is the comfort of mind, soul, and body, is Peace and stillness.

As with so many of the concepts on these Journeys, there is as much undoing as there is attaining, even with love. I am clearing away clutter about what I think love is, what it means to be loving, before I can even approach understanding what it means to be love. Is there a difference between Being Love and being a loving person? If kindness and compassion express love, then what is the experience of love itself? There is an experience of Love that surpasses all understanding and expression. There is an experience of love so deep and assuring, so peaceful and accepting: that’s what I am after.

People have written about this kind of love. Saints, gurus, teachers, masters; there are stories about ecstasy, about hours spent being lost in the bliss of love, about love overcoming fear. People sing about it, write about it. It must be something, it must be accessible.

As I was doing the Guiding Thought, I had a moment…it was a moment that was distant in my consciousness…but it was there. I read the first sentence almost like an order, like a commander was saying, “DO THIS.” When ordered in this way, my mind followed. It was distant, but present, this sense of my Self, the Love I am, seeing this Love as reality, within me, within you, within everything.

When I got to the last sentence about honoring this Love, and offering it gratitude, I felt the Love itself become a little more solid, a little more rooted in my mind. I realized it does not matter how small the spark of awareness is, honor and gratitude fan it. Love is enhanced when I feel thankful for the love and the recognition of it.